Dominique Pellen

With his Breton roots and passion for creativity and the arts, Dominique PELLEN dreamt of only one thing during his childhood: becoming a painter, sculptor or designer. At the age of 15, he started a training course in boat-making at the specialized technical school in Brest. In parallel to this course, at the end of which he obtained a diploma in carpentry and sheet-iron work, he took classes in drawing and painting at a Fine Arts school. At this point, he began to express his artistic side through his fashion figurine illustrations that became a passion, indeed a passion that has never left him. In 1986, this enthusiastic and driven young man presented his drawings to the director of the Jean PATOU fashion house. This shrewd and professional director immediately spotted his potential and encouraged him to pursue a career in fashion design. After doing various courses in fashion drawing, sewing, draping and flat-pattern drafting at the Chambre Syndicale de la Couture Parisienne school, he began a 3-year course in design and pattern-making at this prestigious institution, founded in 1927. Winner of the NUIT DES JEUNES CREATEURS contest in 1988 and the FOUNDATION DE France award in 1990, he won several more prizes over the next few years in design-related contests. Armed with his Chambre Syndicale diploma, he soon caught the attention of certain professionals thanks to the magic of his designs and won first prize in the Christian DIOR competition in 1991. In 1992, he became Gianfranco FERRE’s assistant at the legendary house of DIOR, and in 1994 won the newly created DINARD contest. His polyvalence in the leading disciplines of fashion and his knowledge of trends and the market soon caught the interest of various international companies. He worked as a consultant for the research institute NOMURA (the most powerful private institution specializing in marketing in Japan), for New FASHIONS in New York, SARTEX in Tunisia, the Chinese company Croquis and for the Guangzhou Fashion Week in China. In France, companies such as LANVIN, BALMAIN and Anne-Valerie HASH called upon his expertise as a consultant. From 1994 to 2002, he employed his talents as artistic director of the luxury clothing brands JIONE (Japan), Jane LASCO (France) and Alexandra de RUIZ (France) 2003 marked a new stage in his career. As well as continuing his collaborations with various brands, he became a design and pattern-making teacher at the Chambre Syndicale de le Couture Parisienne that he knew so well. Within this establishment, internationally renowned for the quality of its teaching, he has passed on to students from all over the world the technical demands and know-how necessary for attaining a « topof- the-range » standard of clothing. His experience in this rich and vital context gave him the inspiration for a simple, clear and detailed method that uses all the required data for making « top-of-the-range » clothing. Devised so that nonprofessionals can also use and understand the techniques, this method is based on the principles of flat pattern-drafting for the making of clothes. After 25 years of intense activity in the fashion sector, and more than 10 years in teaching, Dominique PELLEN has now published a method entitled « Womenswear Patternmaking, flat-pattern drafting », in three volumes. Through the precision of its technical content, this method transmits the exciting experience of garment creation, explaining the fundamentals in detail and making sure they are within everyone’s reach.